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medpundit |
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Monday, October 21, 2002At the time, health officials and some clinicians speculated that an ``overdiagnosis'' of autism cases or an influx of families seeking services could be to blame. Instead, Byrd and his colleagues were surprised to find that diagnosis of autism appeared to hold constant, and that 90 percent of children receiving services were born in California. Maybe I’m just dense, but if the number of cases of autism has increased, then by definition, hasn’t the diagnosis of autism also increased? Evidently the answer is “yes”: One autism expert disputed the survey's results, however, noting that criteria for diagnosing autism have changed over time. ``I don't think there are more kids with autism,'' said Bryna Siegel, a UC-San Francisco child psychiatrist who heads the university's autism clinic. ``There are more labels of autism.'' ``There are a lot of problems with how autism is diagnosed in California,'' Siegel added, noting that the state Department of Developmental Services is trying to standardize diagnoses. Yet, resources and federal money are being funneled into the problem: Research into the causes of California's autism spike is ongoing. A state team will spend five years investigating new cases in six Bay Area counties with a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It would be a shame, and a monumental waste of money, if the supposed increase in the incidence of autism turns out to be just a matter of semantics. posted by Sydney on 10/21/2002 06:02:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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